Yemen: Swiss Captive Released

A Swiss researcher kidnapped almost a year ago in Yemen was released in good health and flown to Qatar, whose government helped negotiate her release, the authorities said Thursday. The woman, identified by Swiss authorities in Qatar as Sylvia Abrahat, 35, made no comment to reporters as she arrived late Wednesday at Doha International Airport. She was seized March 13, 2012, in the port city of Hodeida where she worked as a researcher at an institute. The Swiss Foreign Ministry said in a written statement that she had been freed Wednesday. Ali bin Fahd al-Hajri, Qatar’s assistant foreign minister for foreign affairs, said his country’s negotiating team had been “working during the past few months silently, and with wisdom and patience” to secure Ms. Abrahat’s release, the official Qatari News Agency reported.